The best advice I can give you would be, shoot both, and see which one you like more! as far as "pros and cons" both companies make outstanding products! There are other bow makers out who make great bows also! Unless your hell bent on buying one of the two you mentioned, try as many as you can get your hands on! You may well find that you like somthing else better. With all the great bows on the market today, you really cant go wrong.

That is the best advice for any bow purchase! Nice job. I have shot both and both are exceptional bows. I shoot Hoyt in both my hunting and in competitive shooting and have shot Hoyt for some 15 years. I am loyal to Hoyt, but would offer the same advice as above. Try each one out. Impulse buying will only result in you kicking yourself in the rear at some point. There are other great bows out there as well such as Bowtech, PSE, and others. Shoot 3-4 different bows, narrow your choices to a couple, figure out your options and pay attention to how each of the bows shoot. Make your decision from there.

It is good advice to shoot all bows and go with what you like, but you also have got to take other things into consideration.
Do you want a short axle to axle for blind shooting or tight quarters?
Do you want a single cam, twin cam, or hybrid cam (there are differences)
Do you want a short brace height with more of a powerstroke but run the risk of being less forgiving and possibly catching clothing or do you want a more forgiving slower rig with a higher brace height?
Are you gonna want every ounce of speed you can get or do you want a forgiving setup?

As you can see yes you want a bow that feels good but their are also other things to take into consideration.

Jake

Genesis 27:3 Take your bow and quiver full of arrows out into the open country, and hunt some wild game.....

If you take any advice at all, it's don't become only a ."Hoyt or Mathews dude". Try them all. PSE, Bowtech, Parker. Man, everybody's making good bows these days. Not just Hoyt and Mathews. Before you buy anything, go shoot the new Diamond Iceman by Bowtech. Shoot it head to head with these other bows and make an objective determination. It may surprise you. Try the new PSE bows, too. I've heard nothing but good things about em. If you end up liking a Hoyt or Mathews the most, then at least you can rest assured that you tried everything else.

I'm a 17 year hoyt man... mathews just doesn't match up. BUT recently I just purchased a bowtech captain. WOW.. i was floored. The bowtech is so very quiet, fast and smooth. i shot the alphamax and it no way compares to the bowtech. I'm shoot 29 inch draw with an 30 inch arrrow at 6 grains per pound and getting 302 ft/second and 77 ft/lbs of kenetic energy. it's truly a bow worth looking at.

its totally got to be based on your preferance. if you have it narrowed down to just those two bows, shoot them as much as you can. one may be better for you that the other. i mean, the grips are different, the cams are different, there are a lot of differences. its also going to depend on what arrows you plan on shooting, what kind of rest you use and everything else. Talking to people about it can give you an idea, but say that person shoots a whisker bisket with a certain bow, and someone shoots a drop away with that bow. the person shooting the whisker bisket may say that there bow is touchy that the person with the drop away... just an example.. but know that its your bow and your $800 so get what shoots best for you. trust me, purchasing either bow, you are not going to have to worry about surprises like you said earlier. good luck and let us know what you go with!